mystikegg.com - A Mystical Guide to Enlightenment

• What you might ask does the Federal Reserve the US Dollar, spirituality and mysticism have to do with each other, nevertheless gold? It is a very good question. I will relate it to the the historical links between mysticism and the alchemical traditions and the attempt at transmuting base metal into gold.

• Our banking system is a pretty special thing. It has allowed for the development and growth of an infrastructure and economy that up until recently has had no match in modern history. The fuel of the banking system has been the creation of credit. The creation of credit has grown exponentially and this growth is required to sustain the economy

• How is credit created? Well, literally it is created out of thin air. Banks do not have the money that they agree to lend out. They basically create the money by adding a credit onto their computer system and then debit it in favor of the mortgagee. The only requirement of the bank is to hold a minuscule fraction of the total value of outstanding debt as a reserve, which through legislation and “modernization of the banking system” has amounted to almost nothing.
• So what backs up the bank? The Federal Reserve a privately held “uberbank” provides money and short term loans to keep the banks running and does so by printing money and magically depositing money or buying back bad debts from the bank. This money provided to the banks is denominated in US Dollars so that when money is created it essentially becomes worth less as more is poured into circulation. As more money floats around competing for limited things like real estate, commodities like gold, silver, oil, and food the price of these things goes up. The mandate of the “Fed” is to strike a balance between inflation (when the price of things goes up) and growth (the economy expands). It does this through intervention in the “free market” by manipulating interest rates. When the economy is growing too fast and inflation is noticed; rates go up. When the economy cools down; rates go down. When rates are held too long in any one position it creates imbalance. This imbalance creates spiraling growth and inflation, or a cooling down of the economy and recession. But what happens when credit is created at a break neck pace with nothing of value created in return? Bubbles occur such as the real estate bubble. When there is a fundamental understanding that there is no real value behind the observed growth, the bubble it begins to collapse.

• So what does this have to do with alchemy and gold? Well the goal of alchemists was to create gold or “money” out of nothing. Gold for all of human economic history has been valued as the ultimate store of wealth. Why, because it does not corrode or loose any of it’s properties over time, it is fairly rare, it is portable, and can be easily sub-divided (minted into coins). For this reason precious metals have played and important role throughout history as a store of wealth that stands the tests of time.
• The alchemists desired to create gold as the ultimate store of wealth. It seems the Fed as the modern day alchemists have sought to create gold out of base materials. In this case lending too much money to buy real estate to people that had no way of paying the loan back. This frenzied loan or credit creation created the housing bubble, has fueled the nominal increase in the stock market over the last 10 years, and has also pushed commodity prices to all-time highs including gold.
• Gold hit an all time high of $1000 per ounce denominated in US dollars as has Oil hit all time highs of close to $150 a barrel and climbing. The reason for this being that these two physical things are in short supply as both new reserves of oil and gold have been increasingly difficult to find and the number of dollars chasing after these finite commodities have also increased. By the law of supply and demand the price of oil and gold which have been historically linked will continue to climb as both are in declining new supply, demand is going up and the US dollar which they are denominated in has lost almost 40% of its value and some say is on the precipice of a drastic melt-down similar to that seen with the Asian currency crisis.

• So why is there increasing demand for gold and oil? Gold as stated previously is the historical safe haven for wealth. Holding US Dollars in the last 5 years has been a terrible investment as much of Asia the worlds largest holders of US dollar reserves have discovered. If you were a government or individual holding your savings in US dollars you have seen much of your savings wiped out as the dollar has declined. If however you had bought gold in 2001 you would have seen your savings almost quadruple. But why gold? Isn’t it an antiquated relic from the past as many modern economist proclaim?
• What about bonds they are a store of value and they also pay a premium over time with the advantage of something called compound interest. Here again we are faced with the dilemma of a declining US dollar and also artificially low interest rates to the point where the real rate of return on a T-bill is actually negative (Interest Rate - Rate on inflation) so that even holding bonds generating interest are actually losing money. But you might say I want my money to be safe and what is safer than a bank? Well you had better ask the customers of Northern Rock, the bank that was bought by the British government because their was a run on it and it failed.
• Well the super wealthy don’t have to worry because they have investment banks to make them tons of money (you need money to make money right) Well tell that to the investors of Bear Stearns the US investment back that collapsed and whose share price went from over $100 per share to around $12 dollars. The only reason the shared did not go to zero was the “Fed” met in a panic on a Sunday morning and gave JP Morgan another investment bank the billions of dollars to buy Bear Sterns to prevent panic on Monday morning in the stock market. So gold again is now being recognized as the time tested store of wealth.
• What about oil? The notion of Peak Oil has been quite controversial, however it seems more and more economists realize that we are not running out of oil, we are running out of easily accessible cheap oil and world wide demand from India, China and Russia is increasing. Again supply and demand dictate that the price will continue to rise in this environment, despite a slow down in the world economy.

• OK this is all bad news and as spiritually minded people with a mystical focus the notion of unlimited abundance is a common mantra. So where does this all fit in? The “Fed” tried their hand at unlimited abundance by creating and printing almost an unlimited amount of US dollars and it has resulted in the creation of the housing bubble and its collapse. Similar actions have created real estate bubbles and collapse in the UK, Spain and Eastern Europe. Now with the no holds barred creation of money to prop up the failing banks with billions of dollars, the US number one export to the rest of the world has been inflation the kind of which has not been seen since the 70’s.
• So what does unlimited abundance really mean? Some could argue that money is like energy it is neither created or destroyed. It flows from one place to the next through gradients, and can be dissipated but not destroyed. So we could buy Gold or Sliver as a store of wealth through coins. Or gold mining stocks - Yamana (T.YRI), Jinshan Mines (T.JIN) or silver mining stocks - Silver Wheaton (T.SLW) as money flows into these commodities, of which I have. We could look into alternative energy stocks as the price of oil continues to rise (I don’t own alternative energy stock yet because they tend to follow the general market which is the beginning of a downturn, however there will be an excellent buying opportunity in a year or so). The greatest fortunes were made during the Great Depression and Recessions of the past.

• Or we can rely on something that is always in high demand and which seemingly comes from nothing. Our creativity and intuitive spark that drives humanity onto a greater path and spiritual evolution. These things come from the unlimited abundance of the unmanifest realm have the ability to create wealth and abundance beyond our imagination in the material world. Not necessarily things but ideas and states of being and awareness that are priceless and which every one on this planet is chasing after in one sense or another. Freedom, peace, joy, health, and inner radiance have no monetary measure but bring riches beyond comparison and those that can harness these moving forces will realize abundance in a changing material world.

I was in LA a few weeks ago to display some of my art at the GBK Productions Gift suite for those attending the MTV Movie Awards. You can see some of my art at my website www.frankmichael-art-design.com. The event was held at The Kress a hot new club that is opening soon that will cater to the elite of Hollywood.

As I was walking back I came across Jimi Hendrix’s star on Hollywood Boulevard. It was an unexpected and odd surprise. His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6627 Hollywood Blvd.) was dedicated in 1994. Hendrix sought to transcend and include his musical origins and influence of blues legends such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Albert King, and T-Bone Walker and contemporary rock stylists such as Pete Townshend, through the fusion of “earth”, a blues, jazz, or funk driven rhythm accompaniment, with “space”, the high-pitched psychedelic sounds created by his guitar improvisations.

Om is a chant, a meditation, a frequency of sound that starts deep in the throat and represents the sound of the universe. How could a simple one sylable sound represent the universe? One syllable resting in infinity represents the ground of being. The foundation of the material, subtle and causal world, the Kosmos.

In my search for the perfect tools to help meditate and to bring a greater awareness and sense of inner peace I have tried a number of products. One which I have really enjoyed and found beneficial has been Holosync. (See previous post). Another product that I tried and enjoyed was the computer game Journey to Wild Divine. This game uses a biofeedback sensor to monitor heart rate and skin conductivity to assess the degree to which the player is relaxed or excited, tense and anxious. The player navigates through a magical world that is a cross between that found in a fantasy novel and a Tibetan monastery high in the Himalayas. Gentle music and breathtaking vistas make the game a joy to play and experience.

This first person meditator game exposes the participant to various challenges by entering into various states of arousal or relaxation. Based on the biofeedback sensors on three fingers of one hand the player can manipulate and cause effects within the game. One challenge is to focus on a breathing meditation to open and reveal a hidden stair case that leads into the clouds to access a deeper and more mystical level of the

game.

The game has received some great reviews:

• PC Magazine: “innovative and fun, and even better, it’s very effective. Five Stars! Joan Borysenko: like having Yoda in your living room! It trains you in mind/body/spirit magic. Become a warrior of the heart, learn to harness the power of your intention, and create a conscious life- all while having fun. Newsweek: Can video games help kids? …mission accomplished Forbes: Turns your computer into a meditation station…to unlock your full physical and mental potential
• Deepak Chopra, M.D.: Wild Divine is a very practical program that allows people to get in intimate touch with the innermost core of their being. To know that they have more power than they have ever realized, to know that they can influence what is happening in their body, in their mind, in their emotions…

I was really enjoying the game until I reached an impasse. Trying to reach a deep level of relaxation to open up a door that lead to the next level of the game I became focused on the task and unable to let go enough to reach the next stage. I tried a number of times and could not get past this level. This is where Holosync comes in. I had since left Wild Divine to focus on Holosync and came to the realization that I had no objective way of knowing if I was indeed reaching the deep states of meditation not having an EEG handy. I started to using Holosync while I played Wild Divine and was able to reach levels of relaxation that I was not able to achieve previously. This confirmed that I was indeed gaining benefit from Holosync and also that I needed to do more work before progressing to the next level of the Holosync system. Meditating with Holosync while playing the Journey to Wild Divine allowed me to reach levels of relaxation, awareness and stillness that I had not been able to achieve before.

This ability to go deep inside oneself and feel the peace and stillness at the core of our being is essential in strengthening our ability to let go of our limitations, open awareness and and realize our full potential.

I was having a bit of rough morning. Looking at my financial investments has been downright depressing including all the bad news about the economy, house foreclosures, credit crisis, record oil prices, and a global food crisis. Add this to global warming, and geopolitical instability it makes it hard to have hope for the future. I don’t often get down about these things. I try to stay informed to be able to stay one step ahead, while at the same time trying to maintain a sense of detachment from events and circumstances that I have no control over. But now and then the enormity of the problems facing the planet are difficult to ignore. It is at these times that the idea of evolutionary enlightenment becomes that much more urgent. We need to collectively identify a different way of being and of interacting with the planet and those we we share it with.

In the midst of this funk I decided to walk to the bank. I asked my son who is 2 1/2 if he wanted to come along for the ride. He enthusiastically said “Ya”. So he piled in the wagon and I tugged him along to the bank. When we got there we met an elderly gentleman in front of us in line. He remarked about my son riding in the wagon and how it would be great if someone would tow him around the town in a similar fashion. We all laughed at the thought of an elderly man being pulled around town in a moss green plastic wagon for two….toddlers. This gentleman was summoned to conduct his banking, and soon afterward so were we.

After leaving the bank I made my way back home with my son in tow when we came across the gentleman from the bank. My son recognized him and said Hello and the elderly man chuckled and said that we were following him home. We waved goodbye and proceeded to the coffee shop on the corner of our street. I opened the door and awkwardly maneuvered the wagon through the entrance when our newly minted friend was right behind also coming into the coffee shop. I said something to the effect that now he was following us which was greeted with a hearty chuckle. We approached the counter to order and I let the elderly man go ahead of us out of courtesy and respect for our elders (I have been trying to teach my son by example, which can quite challenging at times).

The gentleman proceeded to order his coffee, and then he turned around and offered, then insisted to buy my coffee and a donut for my son. After politely refusing and some more insistent offers I humbly accepted and felt touched and blessed in a way that lifted me out of my depressed reverie and I became instantly more hopeful about our collective future.

This random act of kindness, a pensioner who at the bank was depositing rolls of coins, had bought me hope, and had lifted me out of the funk of self-inflicted melancholy. I walked back home with the awareness of the singular kindness and simple joy that these small gestures can have and how we all have a part in randomly spreading hope and peace to those we share this time and place with.

One of the necessary steps that we need to take when we set out on the journey of self-awareness and connecting to something deeper is to identify the witness. The Witness is that part of ourselves that offers an inner sanctuary, a place of peace where we find our center of awareness. This infinite expanse at the center of our being is detached from our thinking minds, our emotions, feelings, sensations and our bodies.

For some people this may be hard to imagine or believe. Many of us have experienced and met the Witness without really understanding it. Have you ever been in a car accident, or had a near miss accident. I have personally been in a car accident. When it happened time seemed to pause or stand still. As the accident happened in the moment it felt as if things were in slow motion. There was a feeling of realization of what was happening but no fear. Have you ever experienced this sensation? If you have, you have experienced the Witness. The awareness that sees and feels what is happening in the momment, this inner “I”  is the seer and the feeler.

One excerise used to gain familiarity with the witness is to slowly recite the following statement and as much as you can, really try and realize what each statement implies.

• I have a body, but I am not my body.
• I have desires, but I am not my desires
• I have emotions, but I am not my emotions
• I have thoughts, but I am not my thoughts

*adapted from “The Essential Ken Wilber”  - Shambhala Publications

As we grow older it becomes easier to understand the first statement. Physically as we age over time we may come to the realization that the person that looks back at us in the mirror has changed drastically and significantly, but the inner “me” remains intact. Often people say “I am 50 or 60 years old but I still feel like a teenager“. What this represents is the inner witness. It is the vessel that holds our awareness and is unchanging and infinite. We may grow and evolve, our opinions and identification with ourselves may change but the thing (for lack of a better word) that recognizes this growth and evolution is the witness and is not the thing that has grown and evolved. This thing or inner “I” is the witness.

Chuang Tzu said “The perfect person employs the mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing; refuses nothing; it receives but does not keep.” Once we have identified with the this inner “I” or the Witness is becomes much easier to let go of attachments.  The Buddha taught that suffering is caused by out attachments. Letting go of attachments is the key to inner peace and happiness.

Some books you should check out if you would like to learn more about the Adlerian approach to parenting include:

• Children The Challenge by Dr. Rudolf Dreikurs
• Siblings Without Rivalry by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlich
  

This past weekend I attended a two day parenting course. It coincided with the first weekend of truly beautiful spring weather. Although it was glorious outside I gladly gave up my Saturday and Sunday to sit in a conference room and listen to parenting theories and practical techniques. The course offered a different approach from that displayed on prime time TV with Supper Nanny and Nanny 911. These programs espouse the Behaviorist model (think Pavolv’s dog) which is all the rage in parenting right now. Typically parents in the past tended to use an autocratic style, “You will obey my command because I am the parent and you are the child” or more commonly today a permissive style is used where the children are the Kings and Queens of the house and the parents have become hand servants. This overly permissive style, and the social unacceptability of the autocratic method has opened the door for “time outs” and a system of rewards and punishments found in the Behaviorist model.

However there is another way, an alternative that really looks at the dynamic of the parent child relationship in a more holistic and self-aware framework. This method has been termed Adlerian for the psychologist Alfred Adler who in collaboration with Freud and Jung founded the psychoanalytic movement. Adler emphasized the idea of social equality and democratic family structures instead of the more hierarchical models including Behaviorist.

The idea is that when we as parents impose and enforce rules we encourage rebelliousness, when we offer rewards for obeying we raise expectations of rewards in all situations, and when we violate or punish our children they punish us back. Anyone who has a toddler can easily see and recognize these psychodynamic patterns of cause and effect. It comes down to how we want our children to operate in the world. Do we want obedient children that do not question authority (even when they know it to be wrong) or do we want co-operative children that become part of the solution. I think we want our children to be internally or intrinsically motivated, not out of fear of punishment, not out of threat of force, not out of greed or expectation of reward but because they want to do what is right. We need to teach our children and give them the tools and self-confidence to do what is right when we are not there to guide them.

The Adlerian approach looks at the basics of social equity with the idea that we have equivalent value as human beings but that we are not all equal. As parents we have experience, education, knowledge, and wisdom that a child does not have. This does not mean that we have the right to dominate our children. We need to use techniques that encourage them to make the right choices. Misbehavior is seen as a symptom. The disease is a discouraged or frustrated child and the cure is encouragement, not praise. As parents we need to understand that a misbehaving child is feeling discouraged, and needs to feel that their feelings matter and they have some control over their environment. Instead of “time outs” natural or logical consequences are used. For example if the child refuses to put on a coat the natural consequence is that they will be cold, if they don’t want to eat they will be hungry, if they don’t want to wear socks they will get blisters. Children justs as adults learn experientially. We often don’t give our kids enough credit and confidence that they will learn from their mistakes

The goal of misbehavior for a child is to use what ever tactics they have at their disposal to elicit the desired response in the parents. Talk about reverse psychology. When we use the conditioning type of method used in Supper Nanny we reinforce the same behavior in our children. When they throw a tantrum we come running and try to coerce them to stop or provide additional attention. When they ring the bell we salivate. The four common tactics children use can be categorized as undue attention (the whining child), power struggles (child refuses to put on coat), revenge (child is retaliating for a perceived injustice), or assumed inadequacy (child says “Mommy I can’t do it, you do it for me). In the case of undue attention what the child is really trying to communicate is they need some connection, human touch or they want to be recognized and valued. In power struggles children often want to feel capable, and want to be involved, want choices, or want to help and learn. When a child acts out of revenge it is because they are hurting, kids never hurt first it is always retaliatory. With assumed inadequacy the child wants the parent to believe in them, is asking for help to develop courage and self esteem

There are many more techniques and parents will always have their own individual challenges with each child so I would encourage every parent to take the time to learn more about the Adlerian approach and consider taking a course or reading a few books. If we focus on the root cause of the behavior and address the disease instead of the symptom we will have much happier, healthier children who are motivated to be good for goodness sake.

I have over the past couple of years dabbled and experimented with meditation. When I was single and living alone it was easy to find the time and solitude to sit for twenty to thirty minutes and attempt to quiet my mind. I had some initial success but found it hard to maintain over time. A few years back before I really ever seriously attempted to meditate I would sit with headphones and listen to very inspiring but mellow music. I found this experience deeply satisfying, rejuvenating and discovered a few years later that it had a similar impact on my well-being and state of mind that meditation was having. With headphones on and in a comfortable position I was able to reach a state of deep relaxation and peace while still being conscious. This state allowed my mind to rest, but also allowed for more deep introspection and moments of connection with something larger outside of myself. In looking within myself I was able to experience a sense of deeper connection with everything out there. The goal in meditation being the dissolution of self and the experience of oneness with everything. This state described as non-duality or one-taste is that which has been highly sought after by seekers and soul searchers for millennium. This later realization that music produced a state of deep meditation lead me to consider various styles of music such as trance, electronic and the collection of the Buddha Bar compilations.

I really enjoyed listening to this newly discovered genre of music and it opened up my mind to new possibilities with respect to my aesthetic tastes and experience of the world. However enjoyable listening to music was I felt that I could still reach deeper levels of contemplative relaxation through guided meditation audio tracks. I investigated some of these and came across Holosync. At first I was highly skeptical because of the various claims attributed to the product and also the persistent on-line marketing. For these reason I shied away from Holosync and essentially wrote if off for at least a year.

With a busy work life, travel and two young children under three I was having a hard time finding the time and space to meditate or even listen to deeply relaxing music and began to really miss meditating. I finally reached a breaking point of stress, frustration and dissatisfaction and at the same time as this low point synchronistically received an e-mail from Bill Harris the founder of Holosync. This e-mail from CenterPointe Research was promoting another personal empowerment tool, but it reminded me of the Holosync demo I had tried and really enjoyed. I immediately and without hesitation ordered The Holosync Solution - Awakening Prologue.

Since then I have integrated the Holosync soundtracks into a daily meditative practice. The full meditation takes an hour but the benefits are immense. I feel more invigorated, connected, and am starting to come to terms with some of the more self-sabotaging aspects of my personality. The long-held and deeply guarded inner beliefs from our early consciousness often hold us back and remain fixed at a subconscious level. This shadow of our higher self needs to be explored and integrated into our conscious minds for us to really expand our ability to continue to evolve and grow. This does not come without struggle and we hang on to these persistent belief patterns tenaciously even though we really want to change and see the negative consequences of these beliefs. Holosync has opened up a whole new process of inquiry and revealed a journey up ahead of becoming the person I have always wanted to be and in making dreams come true.